Intraluminal vascular grafts are fitted into the lumen of living blood vessels when it is desired to provide such a vessel with a new luminal surface for purposes of treating various vascular problems. These grafts are conventionally delivered using balloon catheters and guidewires. Once located as desired to provide the new vessel lining at the correct site, the intraluminal graft is deployed by inflation of the balloon portion of the balloon catheter to cause the intraluminal graft to deploy sufficiently to force it against the lumen of the living vessel, thereby providing the vessel with a new luminal surface. One shortcoming of this conventional method is due to the relatively short length of the balloons employed, requiring that the intraluminal graft be deployed in length segments by deflating the balloon after deploying a segment, moving the balloon to the next segment and reinflating the balloon.
This is done repeatedly until the entire length of the intraluminal graft has been adequately deployed. One or both ends of the intraluminal graft are secured to the blood vessel by the use of stents or by sutures. In some instances it may be acceptable to secure only the proximal end of the graft with either a stent, or sutures. A securing stent may be deployed simultaneously with balloon deployment of the end of the intraluminal graft, or alternatively the stent may be deployed subsequent to deployment of the intraluminal graft.